'Girls' Doing Bad Things for Money: How Far Is Too Far?

Some writers have what can be called an interesting resume. And by interesting I mean there can be porn and drugs and some serious breaking the law kind of things going on to get a story. On this week's Girls, in an episode called "Bad Friend," Hannah, while on a job interview for an online publication called Jazz Hate, is told to get out of her comfort zone and write about something crazy like having a threesome or what it's like to do a bunch of coke. Prepare yourself for some Girls spoilers, my friends.

During the interview, the editor tells her she'll be paid $200 an article. TWO HUNDRED DOLLARS?!?! That is a boatload of money when you're talking about Internet writing. Deciding she just can't do the threesome, Hannah scores some coke from her recovering addict downstairs neighbor Laird who becomes her guardian angel who ends up having sex with her despite the fact she's wearing a neon mesh shirt that was sweated in by not one but two people.

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But we'll get back to that.

Writers do a lot of crazy things for stories just like ALL people do a lot of crazy things for money. Look at Marni. She can't find a job in her field so she wears a tacky and somewhat trashy outfit so she can be touched inappropriately by rich old men at some fancy club. If she were a writer, she maybe could have made $200 off that story. She ends up having weird sex with artist Booth Jonathan after he locks her in an art installation TV booth (Booth's booth?) showing decomposing animal and crying baby videos. I think that deserves at least $400. Plus, the sex was unprotected. PLUS, did you catch that bit about Hannah yelling at her about true friendship and walking to the further drugstore to get Cipro? Her coke-fueled banter had me all confused on who needed the antibiotic, but it did make me wonder about STDs and not of the HPV variety. And what was up with Marni letting Booth come inside her after he's clearly demonstrated how much of an asshole he is?!

Talk about being out of your comfort zone. That sex scene was ilk.

What happened to Marni was NOT magic. Or Hannah for that matter.

But just like writers do crazy things for a story, girls do stupid things sometimes. Like having sex with your friend's ex ... who is now gay or bi. Like lying about it with your eyes by not telling your friend the truth that you slept with her ex even though it was just 2 1/2 pumps and barely a memory. Like deciding to do cocaine.

I do like Laird though. He is the first guy who really seems to worship Hannah for exactly who she is. Which only means she is going to shit all over him and not be interested once she sobers up from her coke high. But having sex with ex-junkies who buy your cocaine isn't exactly a choice move.

But being a girl myself, being a writer who has done a lot for stories, having lived in Brooklyn in the very neighborhoods Lena Dunham writes about, I can't judge.